Inseparable. Brenda Jackson

sense of. What the hell was wrong with him? Why did he feel the need to give her a kiss good night? They hugged all the time. Once in a while, he would greet her with a peck on the cheek or the forehead when they hadn’t seen each other for a long while. But usually he wouldn’t just kiss her for no reason.

      The only reason he’d kissed her earlier that day was to give his stalker the impression that he was already taken. But for some reason he couldn’t explain, he felt his night wouldn’t be complete unless he tasted the softness of her skin on his lips, pulled her into his arms and held her tight, and smelled her tantalizing fragrance in his nostrils.

      A hard knot suddenly settled in his throat. Crap! What on earth could he be thinking? Kenna was his best friend, for crying out loud. His protective side, the one that usually emerged where she was concerned, was somewhere hiding right now. Shaking his head, he quickly walked up the stairs, thinking that once he got to his room he needed to smack his head against the wall a few times.

      There had to be a reason his brain was malfunctioning, like it had short-circuited somewhere along the way. Why on earth would he see Kenna through the eyes of a man filled with lust? Granted, it wasn’t the first time he had thought about it. Like last month at Blade’s wedding reception, when he’d been looking at her, listening to his great-grandmother’s comments.

      He would get a good night’s sleep and wake up in the morning thinking like the Reese Madaris he knew—the one who would not, under any circumstances, get hot and bothered about his best friend.

      He walked into his bedroom and closed the door behind him. He would get a good night’s sleep, and he was convinced come morning he would be thinking straight once again.

      Kenna inhaled a slow, deep breath as she watched the couple on the wall-to-wall movie screen and wondered why no man had ever kissed her like that—warm and sloppy wet. Tongues do more than just mingle. They stake claims over and over again in a passionate way. It was the kind of kiss that could steal the breath right out of your lungs, make your head spin a thousand times and make your heart pound hard in your chest. She shook her head and thought it could only happen that way in the movies.

      She glanced around the huge, dark room at three in the morning and realized this was just the place she needed to be. She had showered, slipped into an oversize T-shirt and leaned back in one of several comfortable, soft-leather recliners in Reese’s home theater that cushioned your backside like nobody’s business. The huge movie posters on the wall, the popcorn-making machine and the recessed lighting helped create an authentic movie-theater atmosphere.

      Kenna found the perfect movie to watch, a romantic thriller. One minute she was aroused by the intimate scenes, and the next she was sitting on the edge of her seat as the couple fought off the bad guys.

      The house was quiet since Reese had gone to bed. Although she had enjoyed going out to the movies with him earlier that night, she hadn’t been able to concentrate, since she’d spent most of the time thinking about him. His closeness had an unsettling effect, and she became more convinced that the plan she’d shared with Syneda was the right one. If Reese and Alyson were together, then she wouldn’t be so focused on every move he made. Now that she would be living in Houston, the only way she could continue to look at him as her friend and not the most handsome man she knew was to become involved with someone, and to make sure he became involved with someone, too.

      There was no doubt in her mind that Alyson would invite plenty of eligible guys to the party, since the sole purpose was to help her meet people. Indeed, Alyson’s definition of meeting people was for Kenna to meet other guys so that she wouldn’t be around Reese so much.